21 March 2022 Newsletter

Here’s what’s new today and what’s coming next:

-Today’s episode is full of dinosaur fun and since it’s spring we look into the tradition of changing our clocks in spring and in fall.

-A young girl shares her passion for riding motorcycles with her dad. She even beats the men at a professional drag racing rally. All in French!

-Speaking of traditions, episode 224 looks at two traditions: the sugar shack and St. Patrick’s Day. We have students invent their own traditions in a fun activity.

-It’s sugar shack time! Your students meet authentic French speakers at the sugar shack. Take a look at the amazing sugar shack unit with links below. Your students will love it.

-It’s the Oscars in a few days and that’s a great time to introduce your students to the French unit on cinema: Bienvenue au cinéma! Details below.

C’est le printemps. L’hiver est terminé. Bientôt il y aura du soleil, de la chaleur, et les gens vont se promener en vélo et en moto. Quel est ton moyen de transport favori?

L’autobus? Le vélo? Le scooter? L’auto? Il y a Naomie, une fille de 15 ans qui est plus rapide que des hommes avec sa moto!

Here is the link to the video: https://planetfrench.com/courses/nouvelles-actualite-cette-semaine/lessons/177-le-printemps-une-fille-rapide-en-moto/

• Des gens contrôlent leur ordinateur avec leur cerveau! We’re hearing more and more about neural links to control computers directly with our brains! Here are some current examples.
• Du pétrole à Terre-Neuve-Labrador! Where do fossil fuels actually come from? Are they from dinosaures, or from something else?
• Les dinosaures au Manitoba! Manitoba used to be under water! Let’s take a trip back in time…
• Tara ne veut pas changer l’heure en Colombie-Britannique! It’s that time of year when we change the time, but this may be the last one. The U.S. are thinking of staying with daylight savings time, and so are many Canadians.
• Le texte ET UN QUIZ sont sous la vidéo!

Here is a link to the video, in levelled French: https://planetfrench.com/courses/nouvelles-actualite-cette-semaine/lessons/265-controler-un-ordinateur-avec-ton-cerveau-du-petrole-a-terre-neuve-labrador-les-dinosaures-au-manitoba-tara-ne-veut-pas-changer-lheure-en-colombie-britannique/

-Notre-Dame cathedral is being rebuilt with ancient trees

-Pizza delivery robots in Toronto

-It’s St-Patrick’s Day!

-Both St-Pattie’s Day and the Érablière, the sugar shack are “traditions” and so we get students to invent their own traditions in this fun activity.

Here is a link to the video, in levelled French: https://planetfrench.com/courses/nouvelles-actualite-cette-semaine/lessons/224-episode-224-notre-dame-robots-st-patrick-erabliere-les-traditions/

Manitoba: Pompier autochtone de 15 ans/Terre-Neuve-Labrador: Hélicoptère en danger!

In today’s news episode in levelled French:

-Manitoba: A 15 year-old First Nations boy joins his brother and becomes a fire fighter to save his community.

-Alberta: Vaccines are now available for the third dose to 12-17s

-Newfoundland: Danger in the air. A helicopter crash in Gander, plus we meet a military helicopter pilot.

Here is a link to the video, in levelled French: https://planetfrench.com/courses/nouvelles-actualite-cette-semaine/lessons/263-manitoba-jeunes-pompiers-terre-neuve-helicoptere/

Here is the link to the video series “Les forces armées canadiennes”: https://planetfrench.com/courses/les-forces-armees-canadiennes/

To get notified when the new book “LES FORCES ARMÉES CANADIENNES” for grades 4 to 12 comes out, email guy@planetfrench.com to get on the list.

L’ÉRABLIÈRE (sugar shack)!

There’s a place deep in a Canadian forest where time has stopped.

So has my jeep: I’ve arrived.

In this strange land people wear clothes from another time, cook food from another planet, and speak French.

The giant smiling lumberjack welcomes me and our camera crew to La Sucrerie de la Montagne. Une érablière rustique, …a “traditional” sugar shack.

In the new edition of this French unit, we contrast two shockingly different sugar shacks: The rustic Sucrerie de la Montagne with the ultra modern Érablière Constantin that serves 3000 meals each day.

Yet what’s most striking about these two worlds at odd ends of the maple galaxy are their similarities. What is the same is their ever-present sense of family.

Both Stefan and Maxime introduce us to their colourful families and how they built their sugar shacks over the years. Hold onto your tuques:We are deep into French culture.

While there are many sources of information about sugar shacks, no other resource brings it all together like the Bienvenue à l’érablière package does.

This fun unit is available on Planet French in digital format with videos, activities and an eBook that features texts at 3 levels, beginner to advanced.

There is a comprehensive teacher’s guide available to you at the beginning of the unit. The guide has 10 activities leading up to an end-of-unit summative task.

We recommend you do 2 units per week starting now, which takes you to the middle of April. There’s plenty to do with this unit and your students will really enjoy it.

Here is a link to the demo video for this unit: https://vimeo.com/259029137

Here is the link to get to the unit itself: https://planetfrench.com/courses/bienvenue-a-lerabliere-course/

There are also printed books to go along, if you are interested in augmenting the online experience, which you can purchase here: https://rr112.infusionsoft.app/app/storeFront/showCategoryPage?categoryId=27 Since you won’t need the DVDs the prices are a little cheaper than advertised.

Email guy@planetfrench.com for details.

Come and join us for a real sweet taste of French culture!

THE OSCARS ARE MARCH 27TH…Complete unit: BIENVENUE AU CINEMA!:

Why do a unit on cinema now? The movies are a big part of growing up, since the Oscars are coming up at the end of this month, and students are interested in video/film: studies show 75% of them want to become YouTubers.

Planet French/Booksmarts has a full unit on Le Cinéma. It teaches students basic and intermediate vocabulary and shows modelling of a group of francophone students in the accompanying videos and in the illustrated eBook/printed book.

You can take your students from basic vocabulary to completing a summative end-of-unit task: to decide together on which movie to watch, or to pick an oscar winner in a category.

We recommend starting with the videos and eBook sections on “les genres au cinéma”. There are 2 videos and book sections on this subtopic.

Here is the link to the unit on cinema:  https://planetfrench.com/courses/bienvenue-au-cinema/

BEGINNER TRACK:

New lesson: Les pièces de la maison. This very easy video goes over the rooms of the house, and features a fun little game with a cat at the end.

Here is the link to this lesson: https://planetfrench.com/courses/la-maison/lessons/les-pieces-de-la-maison/

It’s part of the unit LA MAISON.

ALL TRACKS:

-Episode Tempête Manitoba/La Relâche (Spring Break)/Ski Mont Tremblant/Ours Colombie-Britannique

Dans cet épisode:

• Au Manitoba, l’hiver n’est pas fini
• Quoi faire pendant la relâche du printemps? On visite le ski au Mont Tremblant
• Colombie Britannique, des ours cherchent de la nourriture dans les poubelles. Qu’est-ce que la ville de Coquitlam va faire?
• Voici le lien: https://planetfrench.com/lessons/tempete-manitoba-la-relache-spring-break-ski-mont-tremblant-ours-colombie-britannique/

INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED TRACKS:

To be honest, I had something else in mind for this week’s episode. Then the world went crazy…Again… So, last weekend we took our cameras and went out to meet Ukrainians. They spoke to us, in French.

In this video which we released Monday on Planet French, we tried to make this complicated situation as simple as possible, and age/level appropriate of course.

The level in parts is easy, but there are sections that are intermediate and advanced. You can dovetail this into our course on bullying. We’ll also be posting an activity set on conflict resolution strategies in the coming days.

Les animaux de la ferme: La foire agricole de Brome

ALL TRACKS:

Voici une vidéo de la foire agricole de Brome. C’est une des plus grosses foires agricoles au Canada. Elle existe depuis plus de 160 ans !

Planet French rencontre beaucoup d’animaux et leurs propriétaires, et beaucoup de gens intéressants.

Voici le lien vers la vidéo: https://planetfrench.com/courses/nouvelles-actualite-cette-semaine/lessons/foire-agricole-de-brome/

BEGINNER TRACK:

We learn about our home, and everyone knows the heart of the home is the kitchen. In this brand new beginner video students learn the vocab of kitchen objects and appliances and structures like Voici, qu’est-ce que c’est, c’est…

We will be adding more to the existing videos in this unit very shortly.

Here is the link to this video lesson: https://planetfrench.com/courses/la-maison/lessons/la-cuisine/

Cours: La maison

Many teachers are covering the theme of “La maison” in February since it’s cold outside and many Canadians spend their time indoors. This unit is designed for the young learners, K-3 but can be used with older students as they’ll appreciate the comedic tone.

Here is the link to this course: https://planetfrench.com/courses/la-maison/  We are continuously adding more content to this course, and welcome your suggestions.

You can do this course over the next several weeks, depending on your student’s levels.

Ma santé: Facile!

We’re starting a new course for the K-3 called “MA SANTÉ”. Here are the first 2 videos.-Qu’est-Ce Que C’est? C’est Une Pomme-C’est Une Banane, And LES POMMES ET LES FRUITS, which focus on basic structures